Roy Osing | Standing Out, Defining the Fox, & Being “The Only One” Different

“You want to be the only one who does what you do.” - Roy Osing

EPISODE OVERVIEW: 

Have you heard the one about that guy who built a billion dollar company? You know, the one that talks about becoming “the only one”. Watch or listen now to learn how you can differentiate yourself in business personally, and as an organization. And according to this man, that’s how you experience billion dollar success.

He’s going to walk us through his life story, explain the key elements of success that you and I can learn from and apply, and then he’s going to share with us the practical steps of how to take the next step in our own journey.

Today’s guest is a gentleman, an entrepreneur, and an expert at growing organizations. He helps people recognize their worth, and is a catalyst for growth in their lives. He’s written in seven books, lead multiple organizations, and even though we don’t mention this in the show, he’s balanced it all and been married now for over 56 years! Ladies & Gentlemen, welcome to the Roy Osing story!

GUEST BIO:

Roy Osing is a former president, CMO and entrepreneur with over 40 years of successful and unmatched executive leadership experience in every aspect of business.
As President of a major data and internet company, his leadership and audacious ‘unheard-of ways’ took the company from its early stage to $1 Billion in annual sales.
He is a blogger, content marketer and mentor to young professionals. As an accomplished business advisor, he is the author of the no-nonsense book series ‘BE DiFFERENT or be dead’, with ‘The Audacious Unheard-of Ways I took a Startup to A BILLION IN SALES’ as his seventh.

SHOW NOTES:

• Website: https://www.bedifferentorbedead.com
• Article Roy mentions in interview: https://www.bedifferentorbedead.com/blog/item/it_makes_absolutely_no_sense_to_seek_inclusion_heres_why
• LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/royosing
• Twitter: http://twitter.com/royosing
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unheardofways/
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com

Transcript

Roy Osing | Standing Out, Defining the Fox, & Being “The Only One” Different 

Being different, defining the fox, and there can only be one.

Hello, my Remarkable friend, and welcome to this week's episode of the podcast You are in for a special treat. How often do you get to hang out with someone who started a billion dollar company? Right. Today you do, and our guest is gonna talk about being different. He's gonna talk about finding the fox and studying them and getting to know who they are.

Is gonna talk to you about becoming the [00:01:00] only one. Yeah, not just another one. Not just someone, but the only one. And how you can differentiate yourself in business personally and as an organization. And that's how you have this billion dollar success. So today's guess is from Canada. Hess gonna take the steps of how his life progressed, explain them to you and I, and then he's gonna give us the practical steps of how to get started on our own journey in this area of success.

So get your pen and paper ready to take notes. This gentleman is an entrepreneur, an expert at growing organizations. He helps people recognize their worth and is used as a catalyst in their life. He's written in seven books and he's continuing the momentum in his life. And we don't even mention this in the show, but he's been married 56 years, I believe, to the same woman.

While he had this amazing success. [00:02:00] Which you and I know in today's world is a huge achievement for anyone, let alone for a successful corporate executive. So at this time, it is my pleasure and honor to bring you today's episode, the Roy Sing Story. 

[00:02:16] Copy of INTERVIEW Roy Osing 12 June 23: Hey Roy, how are you today, brother? Any better? It would be incorrigible, my friend. That's fantastic. Remarkable even, right? Yeah. So Remarkable unbelievable. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you for being on the show today. I just told our listeners around the world just a little bit about you and they're pumped to hear your story.

Roy. At this time, what we're gonna do, we're gonna hand the show off to you. We're gonna go through your life, past, present, and future. So you just start off because everything that's happened to you in life, good, bad, ugly, really ugly, everything in between that makes us the men and women we are today. So we want to go through and hear the highs and the lows, what you're able to [00:03:00] achieve and overcome in life.

Then we'll stop and we'll break it down to practical steps so our listeners can get started on that path too, as a catalyst. Sound good? Sounds good. Awesome, man. So where were you born? What was your upbringing like? Brothers, sisters, cousins, uncles, yeah. Orphanage. What was your background? Yeah. Well, I was born and raised in a place in British Columbia, Canada, called Kimberly.

Kimberly was very famous as highest city in Canada, and it still is as far as I know. And it was famous because it was a mining town and my dad was a, a mine engineer who worked in, in the, in the mine and I worked there during the summers, et cetera. It was a wonderful place to be from, quite frankly amazing childhood.

I'm an only child, as my wife would say. It is pretty obvious the way I conduct my life that I'm an only child and, and I don't know any better. So that's just the way it is. Had a great life [00:04:00] in a small town. Made a lot of friends, did a lot of things, went hunting, went fishing, did all outdoor stuff and then left.

Went to Vancouver. Where I went to university, got a bachelor's degree in in math and computer science in those days, which is of course nothing like it is today. And then I went into the business world. I got a job with a local telephone company in Canada and just started to work my way around and up in this thing.

And where I learned what my brand really was, was my journey in my career and my brand is be different or be dead. And it's simply an expression of, of differentiation because I learned that life and success in life is all about figuring out how to be different from everybody else in the way that people cared about.

Now, I'm not talking about narcissism here, David. I'm talking about genuinely trying to figure out [00:05:00] what you can be special at in a way other people care about. Quite frankly, I learned very, very early that of course, in a business world that was all about performance. Okay? So how can you be different in a way that vaulted performance of the business?

And so I actually worked a long time around and was eventually asked to be the president of a data and internet startup. In the business where I eventually took it to a billion in annual sales, which is fundamentally the last book I wrote, which is the audacious Unheard of Ways. I took a startup to a Billion.

The interesting thing is I. All the stuff that we were able to do in this business to grow, it was exactly around my brand, which is figuring out how to do things differently than everybody else. In a way, in this case, customers cared about and they returned the favor, quite frankly, by allowing us to be very successful.

And so I guess if I could cap, [00:06:00] just cap the whole thing. I think my journey has been, I. Really trying to figure out how to stand out and not fit in. Trying to figure out how to, how to create a new box. Not just, not just play outside the box, but create new boxes to play in trying to figure out how to be visible in a world that's replete with herds of sameness and commonality.

And, and insipidous quite frankly, trying to figure out how to cut through all of that clutter. Do things that, that people valued. And, and of course in a business sense, the, the, the returning the favor was we kept them as customers and they loved us and they were loyal and they referred, et cetera, et cetera.

But I've also done the same stuff in my own life. I mean, I'm a grandfather David, I'm a grandfather of four kids. My objective when the, the first day that the first one was born is I'm gonna be the be different papa. I'm gonna be the papa that they remember for things that they, you [00:07:00] don't normally remember grandparents for.

Okay. I'm edgy. I'm edgy in my language, I'm edgy in my ideas, and I'm edgy in my, what I teach them. And they remember that and they, we have wonderful experiences together. And quite frankly, it's really exhibiting and implementing the same kind of like brand, the same philosophy. Of trying to make things interesting and trying to make an experience memorable by doing stuff that other people won't do.

I mean, I'm a contrarian, okay, if the herd's going west, I'm going east just like automatically, right? And I'm a guy that A always asks the question, how can I do this in a way that no one else does? And it's kind of like been my guide and my, my, my light my whole life and has served me well. And the interesting thing to me is, mate, There's very few people that even think this way.

Everybody's onto Google copying what [00:08:00] everybody else is doing, you know, it's just like crazy. And it really concerns me particularly in, in my grandchildren's case where they're all at school and they're learning stuff that everybody else is learning and they're not encouraged to step out. They're encouraged to follow the rules.

They're encouraged to, to not stand out, quite frankly, and draw attention to themselves because there's something wrong with that apparently. And so, you know, I view this with a great deal of concern, to be honest. And because I don't think there's enough attention being placed to, to the individual doing things differently in a way people care about.

And that's kind of like the journey I'm on.

Yes, I couldn't agree more people are pushing hard for conformity to a social model. That social model changes and that social model is typically deteriorating, not improving on humanity. So I think absolutely. Some of the kids who were the biggest nightmares in [00:09:00] school, those are usually your greatest leaders, right?

Well, it's absolutely true. I mean, Steve Jobs wrote an article called, here's to the Crazy Ones. Oh, did he? I haven't read that. I'll have to look it up. Oh, yeah, yeah. You check it out and you know, it's just wonderful because he basically says what you just said. That, you know, the, the crazy weirdos yeah, they're different, but we hope that they're gonna inherit the world cuz they're gonna look at things differently.

They're not gonna be shaped by the common narrative. I just wrote a, you know, like this, I, I'd blog every week, right? My, my latest blog out is to actually suggest that inclusion is a silly objective. And I'll just stop there and you have to read the article, but it's, it's all about why on earth would you want to be included in a herd?

The whole objective, I think, in my experience to, to, to reap rewards and happiness is to figure out how to get out of the herd, which is exclusion, not inclusion, [00:10:00] but you know, I mean, that's just the, that's just the way I love, I love fighting narratives. To your point, they're getting silly. And they're not being particularly helpful and, and they're, they're giving people, you know, misinformation, the wrong advice and unfortunately lead to, in some cases quite the problematic outcomes.

Yeah, no, I couldn't, I could not agree more the, the removal of foundational truths. So a certain group can have power over the masses. It's not just insane and evil, but it blows my mind that people don't see it and just follow. And what you're saying is so true. Why would you want to be included in the masses when you can follow God and be the leader?

You know? And it's just, it's just mind boggling to me. So, but, but you know what, it does, it doesn't surprise me that people, you know, fall victim to this [00:11:00] because we've been taught, as I said before, we've been taught to conform and comply. Cogs in the wheel, haven't been taught to question the status quo, call it shameful when it needs to be called shameful and create a new universe for ourselves and people around us.

We haven't been taught to do that. I mean, I, I coach a lot of young professionals and there's, they're struggling because of that. You know, I keep saying to them, you know, put create don't copy is, is would be a first premise here if you want. Self-fulfillment and success. You need to figure out how to be innovative and creative in ways that that matter to other people, not just for yourself.

Right? It's not about having green hair for heaven's sakes. It just isn't right. And so, so trying to get their heads around that is really difficult because there's this incredible inertia. Out there that, that basically speaks to people wanting to stay in the herd because it's comfortable. They've been [00:12:00] taught to be the same as everybody else.

They've been, they've been punished when they tried to step out, et cetera. So why would you want to, right. If you just wanna stay in there and go with the flow. The problem is, I mean, if everybody's in the herd society at large, and I, and, and especially from a business point of view, is at high risk.

Okay, cuz nothing new happens. Now you're always gonna get the superstars, okay? You're gonna get the guys at the right hand side of the bell curve that are superstars and they get it, okay? But the challenge for us is to take the, the, the bulk of people in the middle of the distribution curve and move them towards a sup superstar.

Five points If we can do that. Imagine, just imagine what happens to our world. I mean, it becomes a different place all of a sudden. That's the challenge I think we have, and I'm trying to play my little, little part in it, trying to propagate and promulgate, you know, the whole be different sort of philosophy in an attempt to [00:13:00] sort of say to people, Hey, look at, there's practical, simple ways you can get out of the her.

Okay. So let's, let's have a conversation and, and talk about that and, and maybe you can discover a couple of things that make sense to you and you go ahead and do them. And if you do, hey, that's a good day for me. That's a good day for me. Yeah, I think that's fantastic. And you've led companies for years.

Is this the way you were naturally wired? Is this something you learned, or a little of both? I honestly th it's an excellent question. I've been asked before, and, and as a matter of fact, the first time I was asked, I, I just thought, oh my goodness, that's a great question. What is it? And I, my conclusion is that, that I have this in my d n A, I'm wired for it.

I remember I, my mother and I used to be like this at times because we were so much alike and what we normally had difficulty with was exactly this, right? She wanted to do something. I wanted to do something else, [00:14:00] right? She was very different. I honestly think I've got this thing from her. Bless her heart, and may she rest in peace.

Very strong woman. Very, very strong attitudes. Very religious woman strong ideals. I think she gave them to me without teaching me them. She never sat down and said, okay, Roy, I want you to be different. I mean, it wasn't never articulated, but, but just the way she raised me, the, the, the things that we did and, and what I took away.

Looking back, I realized I got from her. So I mean, I've refined it. I've tried to create a process around my D n A to teach people what they can do to kind of like go that way if they want. And that's to feed the animal David. That's to feed the animal that says we need formulas, we need processes, we need systems to help us because they don't have it in their D N [00:15:00] A, but they still wanna do it.

So I spent a lot of time trying to figure out. You know how to, how to, how to teach people to hire for goosebumps, for example, which is a crazy idea I have. How to cut the crap, how to kill dumb rules. The things that worked for me in business that got us to a billion how to, how to be the only one that does what you do as opposed to be better, best, and all those clap trap expressions.

And so that's what I've tried to do, take my natural wiring and, and actually explore how to create a practical framework around it that people can learn from. Now we have a highly responsive audience from around the globe. We have people who are business owners, C level executives. We have people who are blue collar, all ages, all countries, but everybody's here for the growth and to just become a better man, woman.

And you know, when I say man, I mean mankind. But when you were talking about this [00:16:00] concept of being different, What are just some steps, like you said, a framework, a catalyst, what? What's a step that they can test and be like, damn, that worked? I want to contact Roy, continue the conversation. I wanna get his book.

All these links will be in the show notes, but what can they start today? You know, if we don't, well, if we push it off to tomorrow, it's probably not gonna happen. So what can they rewind? Listen to you again. Write it down. Apply it like your slogan says Listen., Do., Repeat., For, Life!. What are, what's the catalyst to get going, Roy?

What's really worked for me, and I had to figure this out, is what I call the only statement, and it addresses the lack of differentiation in the world. And, and I, I had to do it from a business point of view. And it, it kind of has roots like this. Like if you ask somebody what makes them special, And what makes them unique a lot.

Most of the time they rely on what I call clap [00:17:00] trap. They use words like better, best number one market leader, et cetera. And even, even as an individual, I say, well, I got amazing conflict skill management skills. I'm a, I'm a great friend that stuck all these superlatives and comparatives, the language comes up.

The problem with that is it's a view of yourself. It's not a view of others of yourself. Okay? And in a business world, of course, what you have to get is a, is a brand that other people say you have not what you claim, you have yourself. Cause that's nothing but corporate narcissism. And on an individual basis it is too, I'm better than you, David, because okay.

That's simply my view of what makes me, so I had to cut through that and create what I call the only statement. And it's been. It's been kind of like the, the, the, the major plank. Okay. Of my work. And it goes like this. I am the only one who, or if [00:18:00] it's a bi in a business sense, we are the only ones who, okay, it uses the word only because it's binary.

It either exists or it doesn't exist. It can be measured, like you can't measure better, you can't measure best, but you can measure only because it's binary. It literally is. Okay. And so to somebody who wants to take a step, I say that differentiation is your main challenge, and what you need to do is figure out what you're the only one at.

Okay? So the quest here is to be the only one that does what you do. Now, the interesting thing is, I mean, a few years ago in, in this work I stumbled across the workings of the Grateful Dead. Now some of your audience will be long in the tooth like I am, and they will know who the Grateful Dead is greatest touring rock band in history out of the seventies and [00:19:00] eighties.

Okay? Now, not only were they great musicians, but the lead guitar player, a guy by the name of Jerry Garcia, was also an amazing businessman, okay? And if you wanted to read a real cool book read the marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead. I stumble on them. Okay. I stumbled on. Yeah. Just so you know. I agree.

I, again, whether I like the music or listen to the music, whatever, I remember looking at the marketing they had when they talk on interviews and they'd be like, everybody else won't allow cameras or brule. And they're like, we encourage it. They were so smart for marketing. Oh, yes. And before, the, before social media was ever here, they did a, a superlative job communicating with their fans.

They reserve the special deals for their fans. Unlike today when companies go out and give you a free TV if you switch suppliers, they didn't do that. They were focused on growing a loyal base. But Garcia said something and I just loved it because it corroborated my only journey that I've been [00:20:00] trying to describe.

He said, you don't want merely to be the best of the best. You wanna be the only ones who do what you do. This guy came out with that and I looked at him, I says, oh my God, I'm on the right track. Cuz I had been doing only, only way before I stumbled on Garcia. And he just corroborated that you don't wanna be the best of the best, you wanna be the only ones who do what you do.

Because that gets back to what I said earlier, being unique is being only in a way people care about, in a way that serves others in the way that they want to be served. So I would say to your audience, start figuring out what you are the only at. Get rid of words to describe yourself, like better and best.

You wanna be one of the kind one of a kind. You want to be unmatchable, you wanna be the only one who does what you do. Now, easy to say, David. It's challenging to get there. But I will say to you this, to you, [00:21:00] in my experience, the you only statement is always a draft. It's never done. The reason for that is the world around us changes.

Okay? You cannot be so bold to say that my only statement will last forever because that my friend is a ridiculous thing to say in a world that's constantly changing. And not only that, it gives people a little comfort when they're creating their own statement to realize that, hey, this is a working draft.

I'm gonna use it. I'm gonna live to it. I'm gonna play with it. I'm gonna tinker with it on the run. Now here's Roy's only statement. Roy Osen is the only coach and advisor who offers the only statement as a practical and proven tool to create a competitive advantage for organizations and individuals.

I'm the only one that talks about this stuff. I am the only one that brings the [00:22:00] philosophy of binary competitive advantage. Okay. And specialness to people. And so what I, what I do is I just relentlessly hit on that. I said, okay, what makes me special? Well, okay, here's what I'm talking about. Here's why it's important.

Here's the mediocre kind of world of differentiation that we're in. Just look at any website. Count the number of times they say better and best. Okay. Look at, look at, I mean, really look at, I mean, here, here's a, here's a, here, here's a great example. Okay? This this particular organization says that they work hard every day to make the brand that they have the world's most respected service brand.

That's their statement of what, what makes them unique? They say they work hard. Okay. That is a view that they have of themselves. And it may be okay from the point of view of creating values for an organization, [00:23:00] but it sure as heck doesn't define what makes them unique because everybody can claim that they work hard.

You can claim that David and I can claim that. So it's, it's meaningless right in the marketplace, but you can't run and hide from the only statement you create. Your only statement. You set yourself up to be held accountable. You've set yourself up to be, to be raw, naked in the wind. When people observe what you do, because they compare that to the O to your only statement, they say, Hey, Roy, wait a minute.

What you just said, what you just did doesn't line up with your only statements. They can catch you out right away. And that's good because that leads to things getting better and and improvement. The ultimate beneficiary of people that are unique are the people that care about them. Is the point I wanna make.

Okay. The beneficiaries of being special aren't necessarily yourself, although you probably get an enjoyment out of being special. It's the people around you. [00:24:00] It's the people that you love. Whether they're friends, family, partners or customers, doesn't matter. It's all the same. So that's where I would say you get going.

On your only statement, David and I will help you. I will help you along the way. The reason it's so powerful is very few people do it, but the ones that do, man, they, they got something to hang onto. Now, whether you're a person or in, in a business or you're in your career, but just, just think about this.

When you go to an interview and somebody says to you, why do you want the job? Why do you think you're qualified for the job? And you trot out an only statement, imagine they go, boom. Wow, I've never heard of this before. Could you explain that to me, Roy? Yeah. That's the question I've been waiting for.

Explain it to me. And so when you do that, guess what? You will be remembered. You will be the person talking to you will get, you will remember you because you're the only one talking about the only statement. [00:25:00] And people go, wow, that's pretty cool. I've not talked to anybody on a podcast or anybody else that ha anywhere else that hasn't said, wow, that's a pretty cool idea that's never heard that before.

And I go, yep, you haven't. Because you're the only one works. I'm the only one dude. The only one. That's it. No, I think that's great. And I think it's very true. I mean, anytime you catch people you know, they say the best speakers are the ones unpredictable. And with this, people are so used to hearing the wrote can prepared answers.

Yeah, you thought through it, but at the same time it's like, this is how it is. So I could see the incredible power of that. I had flashbacks from my first job. Real job interview. Yeah. And I did something exactly like that. The guy's like, why should I hire you? I said, because we're absolutely gonna see each other again and be friends.

The question is, am I working for the competitor making money or you. And he hired me. Great. That was just my aim. It was the truth. I decided I wanted to be in the body armor [00:26:00] industry. I decided that this was a great company, but if he wasn't gonna hire me, I was gonna make sure he regretted every day of his professional life.

I love it. That's great. Yeah. So, but going back, there's, there's something's ringing in my brain. I agree with everything you're saying and I think our listeners. Even if it's foreign to them, I think they're like, yeah, there's something to this. This is real. There's two dynamics that I see that are gonna stop people from applying it though.

Number one, it's new information, which in a perfect world, that's the the best. That's the easiest to overcome. It's new information. They just need to learn how to process and apply it, whether it's reading your book, contact you for coaching, spending the time developing this only statement. But then there's the real, we all carry baggage.

Most of it's not true. Most of it's just like quote unquote demons in the head [00:27:00] and they're thinking, I'm not good at anything. I'm not special at anything. Of course, I am not the only one that does this. For those people. Roy, you're probably talking to the majority, sadly, of our audience, right? Me, you, myself included the, the audience.

What is your advice to them to get started to overcome these lies and, and, and find out the only Yeah, so, so there's a little process like, by the way, I hear that all the time. I can't do it. And I hear it from individuals. I hear it from organizations. I can't, we can't do this Roy, because we're not special.

And I would say to them, you are, we just need to figure out what it is. And the process that I, I created is, first of all, When you're creating your only statement, the first question you have to ask is, who are you talking to? Are you talking to the world? Are you talking to a mass market? Who are you talking to?

Because it makes a difference. [00:28:00] Now in a business sense, for example, you would create you would define who your target was, your target market in traditional marketing nomenclature. Okay? Okay. And the target market is, is, is created and identified. Because that's where you want to get your growth, and you've decided that if you addressed, say, customer group A, then you would have a way of, of achieving the kind of revenue growth that you want.

So once you've identified that, the next question is really what do they care about? Like, you have to go through this. It's not, it's not what you give, it's what they want is my point here, David. And the way to get at it is define who you're talking to. Figure out what they care about, not what they need.

There's a big difference between needs and what you care about. Okay? Everybody's competing in a need space, everybody. But what surprises people is where you now start to get to what they care about, what they [00:29:00] crave, what they lust for, okay? What they, what they desire. Because that's the sweet spot of success, especially from a marketing point of view, cuz nobody plays in that space.

Yeah. And I want to, if you don't mind, I want to add to that. You said it completely eloquently, but for our listeners, this is the first time you hear from Roy, but you've been with me for four years now. From a sales perspective and marketing, Roy couldn't be more accurate. People buy mostly for want, not for need.

This is where there's that fine line of morality where you can be one of those dirt bag companies that exploits the want. Mm-hmm. Or you can be the moral company and gives 'em what they want, but you're still not taking advantage of 'em. You're helping them. I don't know if it's true, but I heard, I think it was Zig Ziglar said, one time, sales means to serve.

Right? If you're helping people and you're, you're finding that balance and you're delivering what they want, there's nothing wrong with that. You do not need to feel guilty or ashamed. If you were selling computers and they need a thousand dollars computer, [00:30:00] but they want a $9,000 computer with a VR station, as long as you explain it to 'em, you're good.

Enjoy the commission. But if you are manipulating a lady who's in her eighties and all she needs to do is write emails to her grandkids and you sell her $9,000 VR station, you're a scumbag. I need to reevaluate your life. So I wanna be the bad guy and say that cuz Roy's spot on. But make sure you understand what he's saying and the boundaries of it, because that can be really manipulated.

But it is a hundred percent true. People buy what they want, not what they need. That's why they drive $80,000 cars and live in trailer homes. You know, that's, that's a sad reality today. Well, but part, part of the, part of the problem is the world has, has taught us that if, if, if you're actually successful, Right in matching a high margin product with, with what the customer's saying that there's something intrinsically wrong about that.

Okay. And like, it, it is, it carries the, the sort of connotation of being [00:31:00] dishonest. Listen, I'm a fan of excess. Excess, everything. Okay? Lay it on 'em, do more than what they expect. Surprise the hell out of them. And if, if, if you, if they discover themselves that they want a product or service that is way up there.

And you've helped them discover that, what the heck? There's an absolutely, what you're doing is ending up satisfying a craving. And that's what your job is, is to do. So when you're looking at the only statement, you go to the, to the what, what do they care about? Phase. Okay. Not what they need. Because everybody can play in that space.

And so you've defined to, to get back to your question, you've defined who you're talking to. You've defined what they care about. The next thing to do is you just draft. Something up in an only statement format that matches what you are good at, with what they care about. You take that statement and just start working with it.

You just start working with it, okay? This [00:32:00] is not, this is not a challenge of creating a precise formula, even though we've been taught that we should formula everything, that there should be an algorithm for everything, okay? There's not, okay, because this is not. Know that kind of of challenge. Okay. It's, it's a moving, it's organic.

It moves and shakes depending on what's going on around you, but declare it and start working with it. Everybody is special at something given what? Given the process I just described. Okay. Because if my, if my target market is is a group of gen z people. In a block of a co, of a, of a of a city, and I know that they care about something in a digital space, then my challenge is to figure out how I can play into that space in a way [00:33:00] that nobody else does.

So this is the creative process. So the only statement isn't necessarily a manifestation of who you are today. It's gonna be a manifestation of who you need to be to be successful serving the people you just defined. Okay? So you need to do the hard work to figure it out. Don't expect that it's just gonna be handed to you on a platter, because it never is.

It never is. But you need to do the work.

And again, going back to the starting point, some people, they're just hung up. I just don't have anything unique. I don't have any value. There's nothing different than me, than the competitor other than the color of a running shoe. They don't get it. And my back, I've, I've said this to people before, if you're really that average, you need to get out of this business and find something you're good at.

You know what I mean? Why, why do you wanna be number 20 in a pack of a hundred? You should want to be number one or get out, right? But what do you say to the [00:34:00] person who sincerely does want to be number one? They do want to be special. They want to be the. The, the one, the only, but how do they find that?

And, and we got that first step, but if they're still struggling, is there a process that you use to evaluate and kind of reverse engineer what, they're so obvious to me and you, but what they don't see? No, there's no ob, there's no, there's no re-engineering process here. It's, it's pretty, it's pretty hard and it's pretty straightforward.

Identify who you're talking to. Figure out what they care about. Draft your only statement. Test your only statement. Go talk to the people who you want to talk about and ask them, I think I'm special doing this. What do you think? Am I, am I being truthful or am I, am I smoke and rope? What am I doing? Just give, okay, based on the, on the testing process, you revise it and then you go and move forward.

That's all you can do. So, Okay. [00:35:00] Again, I have to say it's not, it's not about who you think you are. Pardon me. I'm fighting cold here, mate. It's not about who you think you are. It's what you need to be unique at to be successful serving the people that you define. You wanna su, you wanna, you want serve. So again, it's, it's, yeah, it's not, it's not, it's not.

What's special about Roy? I mean, read Roy's only statement. I'm the only one that offers the only statement that is not an expression of my, of my, my d n a or my genes. It's an expression of, of what I'm unique doing in a way that matters to people. So it's strategic. Okay. It's, it's a strategic thing, you know, not something that's obvious.

And so you have, I go back and say, you have to do the work. You have to know who you're talking to. And if you, let me give you another example. If, if your if your challenge is to move up in your career, the first thing you need to do is [00:36:00] talk. Is, is define the fox. Now. Who's the fox? The fox is the person in the organization that's gonna make the decision about your future.

That's your target. Okay? So now what you gotta do is figure out. Let's say Roy is a target. You need to figure out what Roy cares about because in an interview, you better know what he play, what he, what he cares about, and you'll find out that he doesn't care about copying. He doesn't care about people that use clap trap.

He cares about other things. He cares about performance. He cares about growth. He loves the Cabernet Sauvignon wine outta Napa Valley. He loves going to his place in Whistler and skiing. He's afraid of snowboarders cuz they're dangerous. Those are the things that you need to find out about, right? And once you find out about it, now you figure out, okay, how am I gonna be unique Playing into those, that portfolio of, of what he cares about, that I've just defined.

How am I gonna do [00:37:00] that? How am I gonna be unique in there? Okay. And it'll, it'll take a different form depending on, you know, the ingenuity of, of, of who we're talking about here. The person who's facing the challenge of cre. The only, but that's literally the process you need to go through. And would you agree or disagree listening to you?

I'm thinking sometimes the people who are the best at this. Take themselves for granted and think they have no value because it comes so natural to them. So for instance, you were saying how you're, you're observing the customer, the fox, and you're listening to what he or she loves and likes and habits and hot buttons, and you're, you're really studying them to know how you can serve them better when there's some people that do that so gifted and so naturally, but they take it for granted.

So not everybody has to work towards this. It's just there like, oh, wow, that guy loves Napa Valley wine. I'm going there for vacation this month. I'll pick up a bottle. Stuff like that. So [00:38:00] easy. But they're trying to, it's almost like we are taught as kids. I know. I was. If it's easy, you're doing it wrong.

When there's some things we're just gifted at Yeah, you're you're absolutely right. If it's not complex, it can't be right. Okay. That's, that's the kind of thing if you can't, if you can't put a formula to it, It can't possibly give you the right outcome, et cetera. And there are people who are naturally gifted at that, but there are, it's a learned process, I guess is my point.

In a very simple way, define who you're talking to, right? Figure out what they care about. Craft your only go test it and just go with it. Cry it out. That's it. That's it. How can you, it can't be any more simple than that. But you're right, you have to study, right? There's that evaluative process. There's a, you know, and I'm not talking about being intrusive, but there's ways of finding out about people.

I call 'em their secrets. Their secrets are the things that they crave about, the things that they care about. There's ways of [00:39:00] learning about if, if we could only just have a conversation, by the way, and this isn't a conversation on texting necessarily. I want to go face to face and figure out who David is, right?

Get to understand him, get to learn about him, what makes him go, okay, so that I can be a better, in a better position to deliver something uniquely to him. That's the process, right? That's the process. It's as simple as that. Excellent. So between your birth and today, I. We really stayed more on the professional side of your story.

Is there anything that we missed, whether it's personal or professional, or something you want to talk about before we transition to, where's Roy today and where are you heading? No, I, I I've had a, I've have, I've had a very imbalanced life. Like, you know, everybody talks about, you know, [00:40:00] let's get, let's get a balance.

Well, my experience is I was successful doing what I'm doing, what I've done, because I, I was imbalanced, okay? I was entirely driven, okay. To do what I did. Okay? I was driven to perform, I was driven to be different, and I had no other way that I knew of to move forward. And so that's just it. Not everybody can do that.

I've learned that, that this journey that I've been on isn't for everyone. Because it's relentless, it's painful. Hell, I just, I just discovered that pain was a strategic concept a long time ago. Then if you couldn't suffer through the pain okay, of constant rejection, of pushing a rope uphill, then you don't wanna do this because it is such the antithesis of the momentum that's driving the world today.

Okay? So it requires a lot of time arduous labor [00:41:00] pain tolerance, so, It requires so much of that, that it's impossible to have a balance in your life. You're either in or you're out, you know? That's it. And so that's kind of like what I've been doing and applying it to, as I said before, to basically everything.

And I've, it's got me into a lot of trouble. Okay. Trouble from the point of view of being the person that's out there, being the person that's asking the questions, being the person that's perceived as being. Being a against everything that is being talked about in a cocktail party. Whereas the reality was, yeah, I was challenging cuz they didn't understand it and I thought a lot of it was BS and so I wanted to challenge.

And so, you know, you just gotta be, you gotta be prepared to do that and accept the consequences, good or bad. And, you know, I've got a thick skin and I believe in principle and I'm pretty well committed to it regardless. And so that's just. That's been my thing. That's [00:42:00] been my journey. So I think we've covered that.

Yeah. And then in your personal life, you know, nobody gets anywhere without sacrifice and pain and trial and you know, tribulation. And some people are, you know, they're pain adverse, they don't want any pain, so they don't do anything with their life. And we have this show where we're more a personal show and then everything always blends together.

Personal, spiritual, emotional, physical, financial, it, it all, like you said, balance. It all works together hand in hand. Because of your mindset, we've heard some of the pros, you started a billion dollar company. What were some of the personal challenges that came out of it, but then how did you learn to recover and overcome that?

Well, I think, I mean, one, one of the biggest things was, was basically rejection. I mean, to, to, to actually You know, promulgate philosophy that, that people didn't know about, they didn't understand about, they didn't want to change to, and yet you knew deep [00:43:00] down it was the only way that this was gonna work required a lot of selling.

And a lot of rejection. And so I would say that was probably the, the biggest thing, having to figure out how to work around it and how to, to basically overcome the people whose ideas and ideologies were really driven to try and keep us all in the herd to try and keep us all the same. And, and fighting through that.

And as I said, I mean the, the Words like audacious is my word. I mean, I, it, it is in my latest book. I mean, I st I hit upon that word and I said, wow, that's me. That, that requires people to be bold, courageous, in your face, doing it. Now, I don't mean in your face in a, in an impolite way, but just a constant driving forward to say, okay, this is a momentary defeat.

And look it, you got for everybody out there. [00:44:00] Okay. There is no such thing as a silver bullet. There is no such thing as getting it right the first time. It, there's just not, because the world is too complicated. People are too complicated. What it requires to move forward is it's particularly when you look at the level of adversity out there is take a baby step.

I call 'em a nano winch of progress. Take a baby step. Celebrate the baby step. Take another one and then take another one and take another one, and just deal with the consequences as you go. You're not gonna hit a home run. Okay. The, the home runners hitters are so few and far between that it's not a model that's useful really to, to, to common people like us.

It just isn't. So, it's hard work. Get the, get the bit of, of, of progress. Be imperfect fast. Okay. That has really been one of the things that's worked well for me. I'm gonna be imperfect, but I'm gonna be imperfect real fast. So I'm gonna move quickly to the next [00:45:00] delivery of imperfection, and I'm gonna keep refining it as I go.

I'm not gonna look for the perfect solution in spite of the textbooks. Put the textbook down. There's a point after which you need to get on and do different things and forget about the textbook. It got you where you, where you are now. Okay? But it's not necessarily gonna guarantee where you want to go to, and so you need to move on from that and get this practical thing going.

I think the other thing that's really important here, David, is the whole notion of serving. You mentioned it earlier in the sales thing. I, I'm actually a proponent of the fact that we need people that convince people to buy. We don't need people to sell anything. Okay? So that's serving, just call a different thing.

So we could probably get away with not having a sales department, but rather super servers. Okay. That created such a demand tug. All people wanted to do is consume what we have. That to me [00:46:00] is the ultimate in quote, sales unquote, and it's all based on the notion of serving. We need more servers. We know we need more people that love homo sapiens as well.

I mean, the basis of creating memorable experiences personally, okay, in a career or in business, okay? Are people who actually have this innate desire to love people. Rather than the people that like to write code and you stick them in a customer service job. Well, we all know how that ends up. Right? Okay.

So we need, we need human being lovers and we need to recruit them in business. We need to keep that uppermost in our minds when we're dealing with other humans is to try and figure out, and it's hard, this is hard for me cuz I'm a, because I'm a driver for results and I've made mistakes. By actually being way too much that way as opposed to kind of like slowing it down and pacing it [00:47:00] right with people and recognize that they have needs, right?

That I'm ahead of them and I need to pull it back if I want to get 'em on board. And that's all about the serving model. That is that is so important in business and in life.

Yes. And. When people get this, it's almost like an instant growth. Would you agree? Like, yeah. When they get that service model in sales, it just, you, your, your results just exponentially increase, and it is overnight. So, ladies and gentlemen, what Roy's saying? Try to continue to think about it and ponder it and meditate on it.

You know, in your arena's book when you're talking maybe for some coaching. It's just gonna start coming naturally. But it's like anything else. You play how you practice. You gotta continuously keep working that mindset to get to the place where [00:48:00] you know what your only is and then you know how to apply it and help others.

And how did you phrase it? You said you don't sell them, you help them know what to buy. Is that what you said? Well, I mean, the great salespeople just create create a relationship that makes customers wanna buy from them. They don't have to sell anything. That's the kind of world we need to get into is it is a kind of demand pull as opposed to a supply push.

Today, sales is supply push. The push, push, push. I call 'em product bloggers in my work. Okay? And it's not their fault, it's a leadership issue because they're paid to flog. Look it. We both, we both know what salespeople are like. I love my salespeople, but I gotta tell you, if I ever had a wrong compensation plan, they would go wild.

Okay? Because they're so compensation driven. So I had to change it, and I put relationships and creating relationships as perceived by customers as a fundamental anchor of their comp plan. I gotta tell you, they did not like [00:49:00] it. Because that was a huge shift they got. They go, oh, you mean my customer's gonna rate me?

And I go, yeah. And they went, oh my God. Went to their caves, thought they were bad when they got their first report cards, cuz I introduced customer report cards, right as a basis for their compensation. I didn't get rid of the product quota. Okay. But I changed the percentage. So the first year it was 60% products, 40% relationship.

Customer report card. The next year it was 50 50. The next year it was 60 40. So I gradually shifted it and it was amazing the transformation that happened to the salespeople that wanted to do it this, and it was a lot of self-selection out. People didn't wanna be in a relationship business. I was fine with that, have them exit in dignity.

But the ones that wanted to say and really got what we were trying to do. They they just, well, it was like a metamorphosis, David Meta, I mean, they just changed and overnight [00:50:00] and they were, they were such valuable, they started creating long term value for us as opposed to short term serve the quota.

Right. It was just quite amazing. And it was all based on serving the report card. We had customers fill out on their sales rep had six questions. Okay. And it was all based on behavior, all based on behavior. That's, that was my way of trying to create a customer set that wanted to buy, which is all behavior based as opposed to salespeople that wanted a flog and it took a while.

I'm sorry. No. For our listeners who are business owners', like, what are those six questions? Do you remember any of them now that you could share? Give 'em three and then Megan go to your website for the other three. Well, no, I mean, go ask your customers what they care about. Okay, and what they'll tell you is, well, I want to get hold of my sales rep, so access, okay.

When I call 'em and they're not there, I want them to return my [00:51:00] call quickly. Right? This is rocket science stuff, right? Really rocket sign. The third thing is they would say, I want them to follow up if they, if they promise me something, I want them to follow up if they're not able to deliver, okay?

Another one was if they make a mistake. I want it fixed fast, but I want, I want them to a tone for their sins. Okay. Which is, I, if you check out my blog, I just write a whole lot about service recovery and the importance that sales plays. So my point is that if you're talking to Roy as your customer in, in the design of this report card, by the way, and the design, the report cards are different for every customer, David, because every customer has a different set of requirements, right?

So if you say, Roy, well what matters? I would say, I want you there. If you're not, I want you to get back to me. And those sorts of things, they're all behavior based, okay? But you just need to ask, you don't wanna make it 25 questions. You want it to be six questions that address the most critical [00:52:00] requirements of ROY or your particular customer.

And if you have, you know, a hundred in the top a hundred that you're focusing on, you're probably gonna have a considerable number of different report cards. So, Because customers are are, as I said earlier, they're different. It's the mindset okay of figuring that out. You wanna, you wanna define behaviors that matter and then measure salespeople from the customer's point of view on how well they fit those behavior patterns.

Magic. Yeah. It, the results are amazing once you start that little bit of effort. It always is so beautiful to see how fast you see growth and change. Yeah, for sure. So, excellent. So Roy, where are you today? Where are you heading and how can we, as the Remarkable community help you get there? Well, I'm actually I have a very audacious goal and it's pretty [00:53:00] simple.

It's, I, I'm just trying to change the conversation out there. Okay. A conversation that helps move people. Along the the be different kind of journey and path, right? To try and understand that differentiation today really sucks out there and there's easy ways to move it. And I don't say that from the point of view of satisfying personal needs.

I mean, I honestly believe that if we are able to move the population, And to towards a drive to discover uniqueness as opposed to copying sameness. We are all gonna benefit. The world will be a much more interesting place to be. Performance will be greater, people will be more successful. Friendships and partnerships will, will flourish with this.

Okay. It really will. And so by writing my seventh book, which is all along [00:54:00] the same lines, would be different or be dead. By doing podcast conversations like this, which I, by the way I love, this is my way of, of talking about my stuff. It's, it's kind of like the way I'm trying to get the message out and raise awareness.

If we sell books, fine, but at the end of the day, it's like I would just see, like to see the needle move right away from this kind of inertia of sameness over to be different. Over to uniqueness, right? Over to being special in a way that nobody else is over away from better to only. So I can see those changes, David that will make me happy and I will feel vindicated.

And what's the, no, that's fantastic. And what's the best way for our listeners to reach out to you to get your book, to check out your blog articles? Where, where do they go for that? So I have a website be different or be dead.com and I've tried to put as many resources on there as, as I [00:55:00] can. I blog every week, and so there's a, and I, by the way, I've been blogging since 2009, but this website has been there for a long time.

I've obviously changed it and enriched it, et cetera. So there's a lot of content on my work. And you can check it out on the blog. So it goes through the only statement. It talks about sales, service, strategy life. There's a whole bunch of blog categories, and hopefully people will find that interesting.

There's a page with all my seven books, which you can look at get more information on and, and, and purchase if you want, and you can always get ahold of me on email. My email address is Roy dot Singh. gmail.com and David, I'm happy to have a conversation with individuals about this stuff. I mean, you wouldn't believe it.

I get people sending me their draft only statements. Boy, here's what I got, here's what I got. What do you think? What do you think? And we have a conversation and I help them a little bit and I [00:56:00] feel good, and hopefully they feel better off. And yeah, it's great. So please take advantage of me. This guy wants to be taken advantage of and to do that, they contact you through your email, through your website.

Contact us, ma. Is there any promo code they need to use or just, Hey, I saw you on the Remarkable PO podcast. Yep. And I wanna be the only how help me bring it. That's it. Awesome. Well, Roy, it's been a true honor and pleasure. And to our listeners we love you. We only want to help Roy and myself if there's anything I can do, or like Roy said, reach out to him.

We wanna see you grow. We want to hear your success stories. So, Roy, before we close up this episode, any final parting words of wisdom or anything you wanna share that we missed? No, I just want people to be the only one that does what they do. Just keep, keep coveting that. Keep searching for it. And even if you make a little bit of progress, it's, it's, you're [00:57:00] having a better day than if you never tried it at all.

Amen. Amen. Amen. So, ladies and gentlemen, you just heard, Roy, you heard some great content for sales, marketing life, and like our slogan says, don't just listen to this good information, but do it. Repeat it each day. So you can have a great life in this world, but most importantly, an attorney come. So I am David Pasqualone.

This was our good friend Roy Singh. Roy, thanks again my brother. Very welcome. All right, ladies and gentlemen, we'll see you in the next episode. Don't forget to like, share, subscribe. You know all the things to do. We want to be huge. We want to be successful as a podcast. We're in the top two. Next goal is to get in the top 1% in the world.

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Right? So, Take it, apply it. Share your success story, share the podcast so your friends and family can be successful, and let's just help the world be a better place. Our politicians aren't gonna do it right. Let's just have us and God get it done. And God doesn't need us. We get the fun journey with them.

So that's it. See you in the next episode. Ccia.